THE SEAFARER BY ANONYMOUS

Transcription

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3 THE SEAFARER BY ANONYMOUS

4 The Seafarer was first discovered in the Exeter Book, a hand-copied manuscript containing the largest known collection of Old English poetry, which is kept at Exeter Cathedral, England.

5 The poem has its origins in the Old English period of English literature, Old English, the earliest ancestor of modern English, is the name given to the Germanic tongues brought to England by the invading tribes who crossed the English channel from Northern Europe.

6 Old English resembles German and Scandinavian languages, and one cannot read it without at least one year of intense study. Even in its translated form, The Seafarer provides an accurate portrait of the sense of stoic endurance, suffering, loneliness, and spiritual yearning so characteristic of Old English poetry. (remember Beowulf)

7 The Seafarer is divisible into two sections, the first elegiac and the second didactic. The Seafarer can be read as two poems on separate subjects or as one poem moving between two subjects.

8 Moreover, the poem can be read as a dramatic monologue, the thoughts of one person, or as a dialogue between two people. The first section is a painfully personal description of the suffering and mysterious attractions of life at sea.

9 In the second section, the speaker makes an abrupt shift to moral speculation about the fleeting nature of fame, fortune, and life itself, ending with an explicitly Christian view of God as wrathful and powerful. In this section, the speaker urges the reader to forget earthly accomplishments and anticipate God s judgment in the afterlife.

10 The poem addresses both pagan and Christian ideas about overcoming this sense of suffering and loneliness. For example, the speaker discusses being buried with treasure and winning glory in battle (pagan) and also fearing God s judgment in the afterlife (Christian).

11 The speaker of "The Seafarer" announces that he can make a true song about himself and the suffering he has endured while traveling over the ocean in the middle of winter. He remembers terrible cold and loneliness, and hearing the sounds of seabirds instead of the mead hall.

12 This life of hardship is one about which the comfortable "city dwellers" know nothing. They'll never understand his suffering. The weather worsens as snow and hail fall. His spirit is troubled, urging him to endure the harsh conditions on the winter sea so that he can seek a faraway "foreign" homeland.

13 Ah, the arrival of spring should help, right? Wrong. It only causes more wanderlust in the speaker. The cry of the cuckoo, a sign of warmer weather, tells him it's time for yet another journey.

14 The Seafarer's spirit leaps out of his chest and soars all over the world, then returns to him unsatisfied. He breaks promises and returns to the sea. He knows the world's riches will not last, since everyone dies and you can't take your possessions with you.

15 Because it's only through the praise of the living after one's death that a person can hope to live forever, people should fight hard against the devil so their bravery will be remembered after their death. That way, they can live forever with the angels. The days of earthly glory are over, the speaker tells us, because the wealthy and powerful civilizations have fallen, and the weak have inherited the earth. Glory and nobility have faded just like an aging person, whose body and senses fail. No matter how much we try to comfort the dead and ourselves with gold, it won't work because a sinful soul can't take his gold with him after death, nor can one buy God s forgiveness.

16 The speaker tells us that it's important to fear God, who created the whole world, and before whom it stands still. Only a fool does not fear God: he will meet his death unprepared. In order to avoid this, a man has to live humbly, control his passions, keep his word, and be fair to both friends and enemies. A man should think about his earthly life, focus on the heavenly home that awaits him, and how to get there. In fact, the speaker suggests, we should all work hard to get to the eternal life, where joy awaits us.